Crazy Conservatives Still Rallying Behind Obama Conspiracy

[marmar]

via AlterNet's PEEK:



Crazy Conservatives Still Rallying Behind Obama Conspiracy

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 10:14 AM on March 2, 2009.

Just keep on talking, guys.




I call them "conversation enders." These are comments that lead you to know, the moment you hear them, that the writer/speaker is either clueless or intellectually dishonest, and there's really no reason to engage the person in a serious dialog.

I suspect we all have them. When I hear, "Tax cuts are fiscally responsible because they pay for themselves," it's a conversation ender. When I hear, "Evolution is just a theory," it's a conversation ender. When someone says, "Global warming can't be real because it's cold outside," it's a conversation ender.

And when someone questions whether Barack Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States, it's definitely a conversation ender. With that in mind, Ben Smith has a good piece today describing the odd little movement behind this argument, making up a group apparently known as the "Birthers."

Out of the gaze of the mainstream and even the conservative media is a flourishing culture of advocates, theorists and lawyers, all devoted to proving that Barack Obama isn't eligible to be president of the United States. Viewed as irrelevant by the White House, and as embarrassing by much of the Republican Party, the subculture still thrives from the conservative website WorldNetDaily, which claims that some 300,000 people have signed a petition demanding more information on Obama's birth, to Cullman, Alabama, where Sen. Richard Shelby took a question on the subject at a town hall meeting last week.

Their confinement to the fringe hasn't cooled the passion of believers; the obscure New York preacher James Manning turned up at a National Press Club session in December to declare the president "the most notorious criminal in the history not just of America, but of this entire planet."

Smith wisely notes that, in our reality, the claim itself is transparently ridiculous. But the fact that these strange people are out there, aggressively pushing their argument, is a dynamic with multiple angles. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/benen/129642/crazy_conservatives_still_rallying_behind_obama_conspiracy/

[Maccagirl]

1. The Obama Admin needs to cut this off at the head

and have it over with once and for all. Quit being coy-that's how the Clinton's played all their "scandals" and it kept biting them in butt.

[Ganja Ninja]

2. These "birthers" aren't just a crazy group "confined to the fringe".

They're the mainstream majority of the Republican Party. That's just the measure of how insane they've become.

[graywarrior]

3. This is all they have

This, Rush, and no taxes. They're consumed with hate and they suffer from ADD so they can only hold one thought at a time...usually having to do with EMOTIONAL TURMOIL.

[old mark]

4. In a way, I think it's a good thing - the GOPs are wasting tons of time,

effort and money on this usless bullshit, and no one believes - or cares - but them. It diverts effort from their real problem, which is - they will lose big again in 2010, and again in 2012, and they will become a footnote in history, like the "Know-Nothings".


mark

[zipplewrath]

5. Intellectual lottery ticket

These folks are the intellectual equivalent of folks who buy lottery tickets in hopes of getting rich. It's one thing to buy one as a lark, a bit of a fantasy for a week about what you'd do. A vacation for the mind so to speak. To some degree it's like taking a cruise. You're just getting away for a while. The problem is when this flight of fancy becomes a replacement for an actual investment strategy. Folks who hope against all reality that Obama is somehow going to be removed from office because of a paperwork foul up are looking for deliverance from reality because the alternative is to accept reality, and that is just too painful. Most conspiracy theories are grounded in this approach. Reality is unacceptable to me, so I need to create an alternative understanding which allows me to continue. I didn't fail, I was cheated by an international conspiracy of bankers.